Ask an Iraq war Vet

[4drugmoney]

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Hey, I wanna echo what others have said and say thanks for your service.

When you're over there you probably see/hear/learn stuff is that is classified, or confidential, or whatever. Are you allowed to talk about it after you get out? Does it depend on classification of the info?

My dad's a Navy doc who's been stationed with the Marines plenty. His new duty station is the MEF surgeon for the second Marines. He said he'll be deploying to Iraq in Feb. So he's a doc and will be in an admin position at that, so he'll be away from the action and should be safe (all things considered - it's not safe anywhere really). Or so he tells me, but I know he doesn't want us to worry. Realistically, how safe will he be?

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Well in communications I dealt alot with classified stuff, but not Intel classified stuff.It was like Crypto for radios and Frequencies and stuff like that. You get debriefed for like a week on what you can can't say, ETC.
One thing I remember was them saying "don't give detailed descriptions of the base ETC." And Im thinking "well we could see the tent we were staying in on google Earth, so I dont think that really matters."

Your dad is awsome, and has probably saved and will save lots of peoples lives.Once he is on the base he is going to, he will be pretty safe. The only risk on base is usually mortars, and if you get hit by one you are just very unlucky. The only time he will probably be in any real Danger is Coming to and going from his base.

[99killed]

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Thanks for your service.

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[Annulus]

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Do you have any theories on why the middle east is such fertile ground for terrorists as opposed to say east Asia? Basically I'm trying to understand from a person who has seen both cultures up close and personal.

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you should brush up on some history before asking this question. google is a good place, and start with arab/israeli conflicts.

OP,
also, great thread! did you make any arabic friends while you were there? any arabs in usa military? thoughts? whats your opinion in general about arabs?

[4drugmoney]

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Do you have any theories on why the middle east is such fertile ground for terrorists as opposed to say east Asia? Basically I'm trying to understand from a person who has seen both cultures up close and personal.

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you should brush up on some history before asking this question. google is a good place, and start with arab/israeli conflicts.

OP,
also, great thread! did you make any arabic friends while you were there? any arabs in usa military? thoughts? whats your opinion in general about arabs?

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Yeah I forgot to answer that first question, but I wouldn't really be able to give a good answer anyways.

Anyways, yeah I was real cool with my translators and a few of the guys I did watches with. I have some pics of them Ill put up.Yeah there are Arabs in the military from what Ive seen no one made a big deal about it (well not publicaly anyways) I think Arabs are just like anyone else.There good ones and bad ones and they are generally a product of there enviroment.

[JMa]

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why the middle east is such fertile ground for terrorists

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have you read the Qur'an?

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have you?

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Jerry: You don't even know what a write-off is.
Kramer: Do you?
Jerry: No. I don't.
Kramer: But they do and they are the ones writing it off.

[cianosheehan]

Were a lot of your fellow marines 'hungry' to kill? ie bloodlust beyond the want to do their duty? Was this weird to be around?

[in48092]

I've read some of the thread but not all of it so if you've covered these questions already, feel free to ignore.

How widespread is opposition to the war amongst soldiers on the ground in Iraq? Is it a taboo subject to talk about?

Was there any effort by the Corp to teach marines Arabic?

Did your Iraqi translators keep it a secret that they worked for the U.S. army? I have to think that it would be pretty dangerous for a translator and his family if word got out that he worked for the Americans directly.

Were you in contact with any Kurds? I'm an american and have spent a fair amount of time in Syria and the Kurds there love us. Similar phenomenon in Iraq?

Do you think the Kurds may ty to secede, at least in a de facto sense?

Thanks for your time in this thread.

[AJW]

Did you get any training in peace keeping operations before your first tour?
Was your training focused on conventional combat operations against an opposing army or did it include counter insurgency training?
What were you expecting to happen after the initial conflict against the Baathist regime was won?

[IWEARGOGGLES]

This thread is awesome. Thanks for your service and if I have any questions I'll add them here.

[Jurrr]

Good thread, OP. Thanks for posting this and answering our questions.

BTW in one of the videos I saw a marine (?) firing an AK-47. Is that common to switch your weapon to a non-US-issue one?